Kids’ Talk Columnist

As the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Kids’ Talk columnist for five years, Peter Mucha answered thousands of questions from schoolchildren.

Some of the most memorable:

• Will a penny dropped off the Empire State Building kill you?
• Why do toilets swirl counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere?
• Did a Munchkin really commit suicide in the Wizard of Oz?
• Why do parents always say, “We’ll see”?
• Is the Great Wall of China really the only manmade object you can see from the moon?
• Why does Road Runner always say, “Beep-beep”?
• Why don’t you fall out when a roller-coaster goes upside-down?
• How many stars are in the universe?

At the end of its run, the Q & A format switched with Peter Mucha asking children questions, and publishing their illustrations. The best ones were collected in a book he edited and designed, Kids Have All the Answers.